FICTION
1.THE BROKER
by John Grisham
Dell
The CIA arranges a presidential pardon for a power broker who may know crucial secrets, laying a trap for the foreign intelligence service that wants him dead.
2. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
by Arthur Golden
Vintage
A young woman in Kyoto has to reinvent herself after World War II begins.
3. STATE OF FEAR
by Michael Crichton
Avon
Reverse eco-terrorists create natural disasters to convince the public that global warming is real.
4. THE KITE RUNNER
by Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead
An Afghan-American returns to Kabul to learn how his childhood friend fared under the Taliban.
5. NIGHT FALL
by Nelson DeMille
Warner
A husband and wife who work for an anti-terrorism task force reopen the investigation into TWA Flight 800.
6. LIFE EXPECTANCY
by Dean Koontz
Bantam
A pastry chef must struggle all his life against a family of evil madmen.
7. WHITEOUT
by Ken Follett
Signet
In the middle of a Christmas Eve blizzard in Scotland, a canister filled with a deadly virus goes missing.
8. BLOOD MEMORY
by Greg Iles
Pocket Star
A forensic scientist probes recent killings as well as a decades-old-crime -- the murder of her father.
9. WICKED
by Gregory Maguire
ReganBooks/HarperCollins
A little green-skinned girl grows up to become the Wicked Witch of the West; source of the Broadway musical.
10. TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL: OPERATION BARRACUDA
by David Michaels
Berkley
Further adventures of special operative Sam Fisher.
11. NORTHERN LIGHTS
by Nora Roberts
Jove
In Lunacy, Alaska, the new chief of police finds romance and investigates a murder.
12. RED LILY
by Nora Roberts
Jove
A woman who works in a nursery falls in love with the boss' son; conclusion of the In the Garden trilogy.
NONFICTION
1. A MILLION LITTLE PIECES
by James Frey
Anchor
A memoir by a man who was an alcoholic for 10 years and a crack addict for three.
2. IN COLD BLOOD
by Truman Capote
Vintage
A savage murder in Kansas in 1959 and its consequences.
3. THE TIPPING POINT
by Malcolm Gladwell
Back Bay/Little, Brown
A journalist's study of social epidemics, otherwise known as fads.
4. JARHEAD
by Anthony Swofford
Scribner/Pocket Books
A memoir of the 1991 Persian Gulf War by a former marine sniper.
5. THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY
by Erik Larson
Vintage
A great architect and a serial killer, linked by the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.
6. CASH: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
by Johnny Cash with Patrick Carr
HarperCollins
The life of country music's Man in Black, who dies in 2003.
7. TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE
by Mitch Albom
Broadway
The author, a sportswriter, tells of his visits to his old college mentor, who was near death's door.
8. WHEN WILL JESUS BRING THE PORK CHOPS?
by George Carlin
Hyperion
Another volume of observations and opinions from the stand-up comedian.
9. CHRONICLES: Volume One
by Bob Dylan
Simon and Schuster
Recollections and observations from the singer-songwriter.
10. READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN
by Azar Nafisi
Random House
A memoir of a teacher's life in Iran, centered on a women's reading group she organized.
11. THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE OFFICIAL ILLUSTRATED MOVIE COMPANION
by Perry Moore
HarperSanFrancisco
A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie.
12. THE KNOW-IT-ALL
by AJ Jacobs
Simon and Schuster
A humorous attempt to become "the smartest person in the world" by reading all 32 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
13. HIS EXCELLENCY: GEORGE WASHINGTON
by Joseph Ellis
Vintage
A biography of George Washington, by the author of Founding Brothers.
One of the most important gripes that Taiwanese have about the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is that it has failed to deliver concretely on higher wages, housing prices and other bread-and-butter issues. The parallel complaint is that the DPP cares only about glamor issues, such as removing markers of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) colonialism by renaming them, or what the KMT codes as “de-Sinification.” Once again, as a critical election looms, the DPP is presenting evidence for that charge. The KMT was quick to jump on the recent proposal of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to rename roads that symbolize
On the evening of June 1, Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) apologized and resigned in disgrace. His crime was instructing his driver to use a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon. The Control Yuan is the government branch that investigates, audits and impeaches government officials for, among other things, misuse of government funds, so his misuse of a government vehicle was highly inappropriate. If this story were told to anyone living in the golden era of swaggering gangsters, flashy nouveau riche businessmen, and corrupt “black gold” politics of the 1980s and 1990s, they would have laughed.
It was just before 6am on a sunny November morning and I could hardly contain my excitement as I arrived at the wharf where I would catch the boat to one of Penghu’s most difficult-to-access islands, a trip that had been on my list for nearly a decade. Little did I know, my dream would soon be crushed. Unsure about which boat was heading to Huayu (花嶼), I found someone who appeared to be a local and asked if this was the right place to wait. “Oh, the boat to Huayu’s been canceled today,” she told me. I couldn’t believe my ears. Surely,
When Lisa, 20, laces into her ultra-high heels for her shift at a strip club in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, she knows that aside from dancing, she will have to comfort traumatized soldiers. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion, exhausted troops are the main clientele of the Flash Dancers club in the center of the northeastern city, just 20 kilometers from Russian forces. For some customers, it provides an “escape” from the war, said Valerya Zavatska — a 25-year-old law graduate who runs the club with her mother, an ex-dancer. But many are not there just for the show. They “want to talk about what hurts,” she
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